Trends in floral scent chemistry in pollination syndromes: floral scent composition in hummingbird-pollinated taxa |
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Authors: | JETTE T KNUDSEN LARS TOLLSTEN INGA GROTH GUNNAR BERGSTRÖM ROBERT A RAGUSO |
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Institution: | Botanical Institute, Göteborg University, Box 461, 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden; Substance Analysis, Analytical Development, AstraZeneca R &D Mölndal, 431 83 Mölndal, Sweden; Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA |
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Abstract: | We studied an assemblage of 17 species of bird-pollinated Ecuadorian plants (from 14 angiosperm families), including taxa pollinated by short-billed (trochiline) and sickle-billed (hermit) hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are widely supposed to ignore fragrance while visiting flowers. We collected floral headspace odours in order to test the general prediction that specialist hummingbird-pollinated flowers are scentless. In nine out of 17 of these species we failed to detect any odours using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), whereas the remaining eight species produced trace levels of volatile compounds. Most of these odour compounds were of terpenoid or lipoxygenase derivation and are commonly emitted by vegetative as well as floral plant tissues. Further studies will be required to determine whether these weak odours attract alternative pollinators, repel enemies or represent vestiges of a scented ancestry. © 2004 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 2004, 146 , 191–199. |
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Keywords: | gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) head-space adsorption hermits Neotropics ornithophily trochiline |
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